Nancy L. Johnson: “Mr. Speaker this is the most important vote I will have cast in my 20 years in Congress. I was here to cast my vote to…”

“Mr. Speaker this is the most important vote I will have cast in my 20 years in Congress. I was here to cast my vote to go to war against Iraq in 1991. That was a definable conflict involving an aggressor who had to be stopped by the international community. America provided the leadership both to develop the coalition effort and provided the military power needed to win the war decisively. Now we face a far greater threat: the threat of a government dedicated to methodical, committed development, production, and stockpiling of chemical and biological weapons, and ultimately to the development of a small transportable nuclear weapon. This threat is spearheaded by Iraq, but not posed by Iraq alone. I firmly believe that if we fail to develop an international response to turn back this new threat of far more mobile and potent weapons, the cost will be extraordinary in the sacrifice of innocent lives and the crippling effect on the world's economy and on the stability of governments throughout the world. We cannot allow nations, as a matter of their public policy, to develop chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons that can be delivered in lethal amounts all around the world.”